New research has found a majority of Australians are feeling stressed this Christmas after facing three years of crippling cost of living pressures.<\/p>\n
Soaring inflation has driven up the cost of food, housing, and energy since 2022, piling pressure on household budgets.<\/p>\n
New research commissioned by IGA found 87 per cent of Australians were worried about costs this festive season.<\/p>\n
IGA spokesman Heather Howell said 68 per cent of Australians were looking at ways to save on groceries as their electricity and petrol expenses went up.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas is really just a continuation of that and really looking at what you can cut back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had a beautiful festive spread. You want to impress your guests. You want to entertain, but the big thing is people are just being smarter about how they do it because Christmas doesn\u2019t have to cost the earth.<\/p>\n
You can have bougie on a budget, it\u2019s just about shopping smarter and really making sure you have that amazing festive spread without feeling even more stressed about feeding the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Howell said savvy shoppers were switching to home brands to help manage household costs, shopping catalogues at various supermarkets and spreading out the cost of Christmas over five weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHome brand products are a really great way to save on all of your staples,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re buying flour and sugar and mixed fruit for Christmas, there isn\u2019t any real reason to buy more expensive products for those sorts of things when you\u2019re baking. <\/p>\n
People are also actively comparing prices, shopping around, and looking to find the best value at multiple supermarkets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are also seeing people simplifying for Christmas and choosing ingredients that can be used across multiple dishes is a really great way to save.<\/p>\n
They are also buying a frozen cheesecake or a pavlova base, so it\u2019s about spending less but also spending less time baking, so they\u2019re saving time and money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Howell said it was always helpful to plan Christmas menus early to avoid last-minute overspending.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing together is really important \u2026 people are making smarter choices to help keep costs down without losing the joy of the festive season,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to spend the earth to have an amazing Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New research has found a majority of Australians are feeling stressed this Christmas after facing three years of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276],"tags":[118691,23533,118696,118693,118697,18,118699,82928,118695,135,118684,118685,19,17,118692,167,502,118682,118698,118683,118694,118686,118690,118687,118689,118688],"class_list":{"0":"post-219680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-andrew-henshaw","9":"tag-anthony-albanese","10":"tag-choosing-ingredients","11":"tag-christmas-stress-hits","12":"tag-crippling-cost","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-emma-kirk","15":"tag-festive-season","16":"tag-festive-spread","17":"tag-health","18":"tag-heather-howell","19":"tag-home-brand-products","20":"tag-ie","21":"tag-ireland","22":"tag-manage-household-costs","23":"tag-mental-health","24":"tag-mentalhealth","25":"tag-newswire-news","26":"tag-petrol-expenses","27":"tag-research-finds","28":"tag-research-shows","29":"tag-shopping-catalogues","30":"tag-stress-hits-majority","31":"tag-survey-shows","32":"tag-time-baking","33":"tag-vowed-targeting-cost"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115676727404343832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}